Episode 1018 - 4 Chefs Compete
The eighteenth episode of Season 10 of Hell's Kitchen aired on FOX, on August 27, 2012. On that episode, the final four reunited with their loved ones, took turns running the pass, and Ramsay picked two of them for the finals. Intro Continuing from the previous episode, the mysterious people turned out to be Christina’s mother and girlfriend, Dana’s parents, Barbie’s partner and kids, and Justin’s parents. As the final four reconnected with their loved ones, Justin started to show more emotion after being stone faced for most of the competition, Dana and Christina called themselves the dynamic duo, and Barbie knew her family was proud of her no matter what. After some time, the loved ones left and Christina called seeing her girlfriend the thing she needed, before proclaiming to hold onto that moment for the rest of her life. As the final four reconvened, Justin called it one of the most emotional experiences of his life, and Christina remarked that Ramsay did not lie to them about things getting better. Individual challenge The next day, Sous Chef Scott called the dorms, and asked Barbie to bring everybody outside as the cars were waiting for them. Although she was exhausted from the previous night, Christina knew she had to push herself even though they had no idea where they were going, and Justin knew that anything could happen in the final four. At a grocery store, the final four met up with Ramsay, who explained that a chef not only has to be creative and a strong leader, but they also must maximize their budget into profitable items. For the Budget Challenge, each chef was given a $15 limit and 10 minutes to buy as many ingredients as they could, but Dana begged Ramsay to fork over more cash as she felt $15 was not enough. After, Ramsay added on that once back in Hell’s Kitchen, they had 30 minutes to cook their dish with the goal of making it a very profitable dish. As the chefs began racing for their ingredients, Christina called it an important challenge as Ramsay was looking for somebody who could make money for him, while Dana was forced to get five ounces of halibut after complaining that New Jersey never sold her $39.99 a pound for fish. Meanwhile, Barbie decided to buy a cheaper pork chop at $5.99 a pound, and bought a sausage to add value to her dish, while Justin bought cheap seasonal ingredients along with some colossal shrimp. Eventually, everybody was able to buy their ingredients in the time limit, but while the women were able to maintain their budget, Justin was 77 cents over his budget. Dismayed by that, along with the fact Sous Chef Scott refused to help him, Justin was forced to give up his avocado to bring his budget down. Returning to Hell’s Kitchen, the chefs began cooking their dishes, and although Justin did not have a clear idea what he was cooking, he was excited and calm like he was in every challenge. Then, Sous Chef Scott noticed that Christina bought the fewest amount of ingredients of the final four, but she refused to get nervous as she hoped people would be willing to pay more with less components. With 15 minutes left, Dana noticed how quiet the kitchen was as there were only three chefs left and there was nowhere left to hide, but Christina helped her by telling her to watch her cream. However, Barbie reminded the two that it was a challenge, and they were not in teams, before focusing on her own dish. Eventually, everybody got their dishes cooked and plated on time. David Lefevre, Hugh Garvey, and Christian Philippo were invited as guest judges, and that scared Dana as it could be their toughest challenge yet. Each judge would give out an amount they would pay for, which would then round into an average, and the person with the highest average was the winner. Justin was the first one up, felt confident about his bold flavors, and presented his roasted corn and mango salsa on top of chili shrimp. While the dish was praised for being nice and crispy, it was criticized for a lack of liveliness with Lefevre noting that the dish needed lime juice to have the textures explode in their mouths. After, Justin scored a $28.33 average, although he felt the dish should have received more dollars, and as Barbie walked her dish up, she was nervous as pork chops were a less expensive over shrimp, but confidently felt it was at least $33. Barbie’s pork and sauerkraut with sausage was praised a perfect pork and generous portions, but criticized for a salty and unnecessary sausage component, giving her a $33 average. While Justin was hurt and irked that he lost to a pork chop, Barbie was happy about her performance. When Dana went up, she was surprised that Barbie got a high average with a pork chop, and was worried that her halibut was smaller compared to the bigger pork chop. However, her panko encrusted halibut over a shaved fennel salad and citrus Berblanc was praised for having the seafood as the star of the show, being fresh and elegant, and Dana scored a $34 average. Christina was the final person up, and knew she had a big hill to climb as there were not a lot of challenges left, before presenting her grilled swordfish with saffron rice and shrimp. While Garvey praised the broth for making him feel he was in Southern France, and Lefevre feeling that it was a flavorable dish, he and Philippo felt the skin was unnecessary, although she accused them of being non skin lovers. As a result, Christina scored a $33.67 average, and Dana won the challenge, and while the latter was happy she won a challenge during the final four, a defeated Christina wanted Dana to let her win a challenge at least once, before knowing she had to step it up later that night. Reward Dana was rewarded with a trip to Lefevre’s Manhattan Beach Post restaurant for not only lunch, but one on one time, which she felt was great. During the reward, Dana arrived at Levefvre’s restaurant, which had been closed for only the two of them, and after working with him on some of the dishes, she called it amazing to work with a Michelin Star chef. After cooking the dishes, Lefevre revealed that there were some people they can serve to, but while she complained that she wanted to eat it herself, she changed her tune after seeing that her parents were in the restaurant. As they ate together, Dana wanted to relax, but knew she had to focus in order to kick ass. Punishment The remaining chefs were punished by separating all the trash the restaurant accumulated for recycling purposes. During the punishment, Christina called it a bad one as it reached a new level of disgusting, even wanting to give Clemenza a head to toe bath in exchange of going into the dumpster. Then, Justin called it both horrifying and gross to see all the food they wasted throughout the competition, and felt he was going to throw up due to the putrid smell, but Barbie was used to the smell as she did compost every Friday and told him to get over it. When Dana walked past them for her reward, Barbie was happy the former was leaving as she would have done nothing but whine, bitch, and moan, and make her throw her in the dumpster. Later, Justin nearly puked over the sight of maggots in the trash, but Barbie told him to do it in the organic bin, and Christina called him the baby of the group that day as the last thing she wanted was Justin to puke over things they had to sort through. Before service Later that day, the three chefs began prepping for service, but both Justin and Christina felt they still smelled like garbage despite showering before, and Dana came back from her reward. However, Christina got annoyed when Dana described her reward as it was the last thing she wanted to hear after busting her ass that day, and when nobody responded to Dana’s questions about if they were using the regular menu, the latter asked what she did to deserve it, especially towards Christina. Then, Dana declared that there were no more friendships now, and that their next service would determine her fate in the competition. After prep, Ramsay had the final four lined up, and announced that he was testing their leadership skills that night by having them run the pass, which Dana called huge as if nobody could do it, then how could they run a brigade. Ramsay added on that this was a very important test as it established the difference between a chef and a leader, even revealing that the President of the Paris hotel Vegas David Hoenemeyer was dining that night, and Christina knew that she had to make no mistakes in order to impress Hoenemeyer. After, Ramsay asked James to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service As service began, Ramsay urged the final four to step up to the plate, and added on that Sous Chef Andi and Scott would cover for any station left unmanned. When working on their first order, Christina knew how high the stakes were as the final four worked very hard to get to where they needed to be, and that they were going to fight harder that night. After, Christina and Justin got their first order of appetizers accepted, before Ramsay had the latter run the hot plate first, Christina take over garnish, and Sous Chef Scott take over appetizers. After reading out his ticket, Justin said that he only cared about driving the food out and make sure everything was done properly. While Justin got off to a strong start, Sous Chef Scott began the first quality test by putting crab in the lobster spaghetti, but the former was able to catch that mistake after a quick taste, and earned praise from Ramsay. Now on, Hoenemeyer’s table, Justin called out the order, but everybody but Dana responded as the latter felt he was being annoying, but Justin got irked when she was dragging fish as it meant she did not care. While most of the entrées were on the pass, Justin was still waiting on Dana’s sea bass, but she retorted that it would be ready when it was ready. Catching that, Ramsay told Dana that her attitude stunk and it was Justin’s time, before ordering her to move her fucking ass, and called her out for being about her own time and not the restaurant’s time while adding a threat of elimination if she had given up. However, Dana got irked when Ramsay accused her of sabotaging Justin as she worked hard as anybody was on the pass, before finally getting her sea bass out and allowing Hoenemeyer’s table to receive their entrées. Dana was the second person to run the pass, wanted to prove to Ramsay he was looking for, and knew she had to step up as the leader he was looking for. However, she read the order out when nobody was paying attention, and Ramsay reminded Dana that they had to respond to her for her to run the kitchen. After getting the second time better, Dana declared that she was running the kitchen and not the other way around, and food left at a steady pace. After Justin sent up the risotto, Ramsay added sugar into in without Dana’s knowledge, but even after tasting it, she still plated until Ramsay had her taste again. Realizing her mistake, Dana told Justin to refire two risottos, refused to fail at the pass, and got the refire accepted. One hour into dinner service, Barbie went up for her turn, but after Ramsay told her to run her way, she read out the order from the pass with her back towards everybody. Dana got confused as they had no idea what she asked, but Barbie corrected herself after Ramsay told her not to shout towards the dining room. Then, Barbie rejected Justin’s risotto for having too much white wine, but he did not talk to Dana about the refire until after he sent it up until Barbie ordered the two to work together as she called it a trainwreck. After, the kitchen was back on track, only for Sous Chef Scott to send up celeriac mashed instead of the ordered mashed potatoes, although Barbie caught that mistake. After Barbie’s turn ended, she felt that she did well running the brigade, and that she showed Ramsay a true leader. Christina was the final person to run the pass, and felt she was pumped by being up there before being very vocal to Ramsay’s approval. However, when Christina referred to Dana as her buddy, Ramsay lectured her not to do that, and Christina got more forceful when Dana had to drag on cod due to having her initial orders burnt on the bottom. Then, Ramsay warned Christina that she was being walked over, and then, Dana sent up a raw cod, and when the latter struggled on the refire, Christina and Ramsay pushed her to get it up quickly. Eventually, Christina decided to throw away friendship if Dana was performing poorly at that stage of the competition, and became more assertive to the latter, which caused Dana to final get the refire accepted. Then, Ramsay replaced the spinach garnish with arugula, but Christina instantly saw the sabotage, and knew that she was not going to let that slide. After, the final orders were served with no other problems. Post-mortem After service, Ramsay had the final four lined up, and asked them to think about who should stay, and who should go home. During deliberation, Barbie said that with four chefs left, they had to be at their best and hold their stations down, before feeling that Dana did not do that in both the line and the pass. While Dana felt nobody performed that bad, Barbie felt the former was not owning up to her mistakes, and reminded Dana about dragging on the tickets. While Dana argued against that, Justin reminded her how she dragged on the very first ticket he was on the pass for, and when Barbie asked Dana if she ever ran a pass before, the latter said she did not. However, Dana called Barbie delusional if the latter thought she would win, but Christina felt Dana was fucking everything that night, and reminded the latter about the raw cod when she was running the pass. However, Dana ignorantly felt she had been on the top of every challenge, and that she should not go home based on one poor service. Elimination When the final four came down, Ramsay said that he dropped them into the deep end that night to see how well they could push the brigade, before asking them why they should stay. Barbie felt she had not given up and has grown since the beginning while keeping her motivation and passion, while Justin said that he worked 150% of his stay and that he learned to drop his ego at the door. Then, Dana said she had been a strong performer in both challenges and services and while she knew it was not her best performance, she did not make the same mistakes. Finally, Christina said she kept her mouth shut since the start, felt she became the leader of the red team, and that her standards were higher than before. After, Ramsay admitted how hard it was because the next service would be the final one, and added on that two of them would be leaving that night, before naming Barbie as the first one eliminated. Before leaving, Ramsay praised Barbie for improving the most and calling her a gifted girl. During her exit interview, Barbie received a retrospective montage. After Barbie left, Ramsay admitted that it was now hard to pick two out of the three remaining chefs as there was a fraction of difference between them, and that he could see anyone of them in the finale. Just before Ramsay could announce who the first finalist was, the episode ended in a cliffhanger. Ramsay gave no comment on Barbie’s elimination, and she did not receive the coat hanging and portrait burning sequence. Category:Episodes Category:Season 10